Children at Norseman Mission. The author’s mum, Violet Newman is in the middle row on the far left.
Image from the collection of Elsie Lambadgee (dec.)
Aileen Marwung Walsh’s grandparents were sent to the Moore River Native Settlement, of Rabbit Proof Fence infamy, half a century ago. In 2018, 100 years after the settlement’s founding, she returned.
The most commonly criticised feature of the bill is the arbitrary maximum period of two years within which a decision about permanent placement has to be made.
Shutterstock
One of the state’s most significant powers is the ability to remove children from their families. Potential reforms in NSW could expand this already racialised power in frightening ways.
Protestors rally outside Channel 7 studios in Sydney following the controversial segment on Aboriginal adoption.
AAP/Crowdspark
The National Gallery of Australia’s Third National Indigenous Art Triennial presents a passionate well-considered argument for an enduring Aboriginal culture.
The relationship between Canada’s Aboriginal peoples and non-indigenous population has never been an equal one.
AAP Image/Adam Gartrell
The relationship between Canada’s Aboriginal peoples and non-indigenous population has never been an equal one, even though the 1982 national constitution recognises Aboriginal rights.
A meeting to plan the 1938 Day of Mourning in Sydney is addressed by Jack Patten, a leader of the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA), which had three aims: full citizenship rights; Aboriginal representation in parliament and the abolition of the NSW Aborigines Protection Board.
Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW – MLQ059/9
Researchers aim to record the experiences of the last people to live under the control of the Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board in NSW as part of a complete history of its far-reaching impacts.
South Australians turned out in numbers to hear the 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, but a bill before the state parliament fails to live up to the promise of that day.
Wikimedia Commons/edna-photos
A bill before South Australian parliament would make it the second Australian state to compensate Stolen Generation survivors and their children. Tangible recognition of their suffering is overdue, but…
Social workers can successfully work with most families that find themselves in trouble without taking their children away.
Nadezhda1906/Flickr
After a long period of expansion in the number of children living in out-of-home care, most modern child protection systems around the world have been labouring to prevent such placements. Instead, they’re…
Many Indigenous families fear the welfare system.
AAP Image/Neda Vanovac
In some jurisdictions of Australia, the rate of Indigenous children in foster, kinship and residential care on any one night has reached almost one in ten. This rate is almost ten times higher than non-Aboriginal…
People who have been in care are more likely to have children at an early age and are at greater risk of having their own child taken into care.
Mika Heittola/Shutterstock
Most people reasonably assume there is evidence of good long-term outcomes for children who come into contact with child protection systems. Why else would we intervene in the lives of children and their…
Five years on from the apology to the Stolen Generations, Aboriginal children are still in child protection at a disproportionate rate to the rest of the population.
AAP/Kym Smith
Five years ago, Kevin Rudd made an apology to the Stolen Generations of this country for the wholesale practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families and the identity-shattering impacts this…
Non-Indigenous Australians should say sorry because they feel sympathy for the plight of the Stolen Generations, not because it was their fault.
butupa
As we are about to mark the 14th National Sorry Day and the fourth since the National Apology was delivered by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, I can’t help but wonder if much has changed since the days…
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne